2 min gestures, too many lines or too few?
3yr
Kanaka CR
Hi y'all, I need some advice - I am doing 2 min gestures based on the first lesson. Am I on the right track? Some look totally off to me, even though I followed the instruction, practically stroke for stroke...
Don't worry kanaka, your on the right track :).
gesture is just something that takes years to get the hang of.
If you wanna improve faster try and practice at least 15 minutes a day on gesture everyday. you will get better.
The critiques I would give has already been mentioned by the others, but other than that keep going and good luck on your art journey.
from ya boy,
Tiago 😊.
Hey Kanaka! I'm new to gesture drawing too, but my suggestion would to be to commit to your lines. You seem to be going over your lines multiple times. I try to just pause and think before putting down a line, and *hopefully* I won't feel the need to keep touching it. Gosh it's hard though.
You're off to a great start! I can't wait to see how you advance (:
They are great actually! And I will say that you're on the right track. But, it seems to me that you haven't build up (or probably lost) your confidence yet.
The thing about gesture is that you shouldn't follow instruction 'stroke for stroke'. It's actually the other way round: it's all about finding your own stroke. You see, when you follow someone's stroke, you will normally lose confidence in yourself. It's like reading a speech you don't write. And it shows through your work. As you can see, your stroke is a little bit sketchy.
If you find it difficult to find your own stroke though, usually it's because you haven't decided the important lines yet. There are a lot of lines you can draw and it's tempting to draw all of them, but it's not the point of gesture after all. Find the ones that are important to one particular gesture.
I've drawn over your work (only 3 out 5 unfortunately), to point out what's these important lines are. The bold lines are the important ones, and the thin one are the helping lines. By focusing to the important ones, you make your gesture clearer and better, like a loud speech, compared to a mumble.
Hey Kanaka,
One thing that will help you in gesture drawing is to draw with your whole arm not just your wrist. It helps you make long sweeping lines. Your gesture should describe the whole pose and also the limbs. I did some draw overs to show you what I mean. I don't have the reference of the poses, so I just made my best guess. I hope it helps :)
They look about the right amount of lines per say, but it looks like you're still focused on the contour and shape instead of the movement. Especially the legs and torso. You might be a little stiff drawing these or nervous. Try going too loose for starting sketches then refine slowly to controlled and confident lines.